The Tunisian government decided on Friday (July 5th) to ban "for security reasons" the wearing of the niqab in public institutions, a sign of the tense security climate in the country, one week after a double deadly suicide attack perpetrated in Tunis.
The circular signed by Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and addressed to ministers, secretaries of state, prefects and officials of public institutions, states that "in the context of the preservation of public safety (...), it is necessary take the necessary measures to prohibit entry to the premises of public institutions (...) to anyone with a covered face ".
The text does not specify when the decision will enter into force, or if it is provisional.
Tight security climate
Only the parliament is authorized to prohibit the wearing of the niqab - full veil hiding face and upper body - in the public space, said a counselor to the presidency of the government.
This decision comes in a tense security environment following, among other things, a double suicide attack on June 27 in Tunis targeting the police. Claimed by the Islamic State organization, it killed two people, one policeman and one civilian, and seven wounded.
Rumors had circulated on social networks that a man presented by the authorities as the "mastermind" of the double bombing, who set off an explosive belt Tuesday while he was being chased by the police, had hidden under a niqab. This was later denied by the Ministry of the Interior.
Held prohibited under the Ben Ali regime
The Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH) has called for this ban to remain "temporary".
The wearing of the niqab is the subject of lively debate between secular political activists and Islamists in particular.
This outfit was not tolerated under the regime of ousted President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who ruthlessly suppressed all forms of Islamism, but has experienced a surge since the January 2011 revolution.
With AFP